You may want a company introduction or product guide to be discoverable through search and AI while also using the same document in sales follow-up. Fewer documents and links sound easier to manage. But public discoverability and controlled distribution start from different assumptions.
Public material must stand on its own for someone who has never met your team. Sales material is delivered to a specific recipient within a review stage and conversation. Applying one rule to both can expose information that should remain controlled or unnecessarily close information that is safe to publish.
Start by separating the two document purposes
Define the document’s role before choosing a link type.
Public-discoverable material is intended for people you do not know to find. Public company and product explanations, verified guides, and publishable reports can fit this role.
Controlled-distribution material supports a specific conversation and review. Pricing conditions, tailored proposals, customer-specific scope, and technical or security appendices depend on the recipient and timing.
“Should more people see this?” and “Should this reach specific people?” are different questions. Do not let expected search value or sales usefulness decide whether information is publishable.
Public candidates should pass four questions
Before classifying a document as public, ask:
- Is every included detail safe for an unknown reader?
- Can the document be understood without a salesperson’s explanation?
- Does it exclude customer-specific, pricing, security-review, and internal-plan details?
- Can an owner maintain its source, revision date, and public status?
If any answer is unclear, separate a publishable summary from the appendix that requires control. Removing names and logos does not automatically make a document public. Context may still reveal a customer or internal strategy.
Show sources, the initial publication date, dates of material updates, and the responsible team on the public copy. These details explain the document’s time boundary; they do not guarantee search ranking or AI citation.
Assign audience and retirement ownership to sales documents
Calling a controlled document “private” is not enough. Record who receives it, why it is shared, when it will be reviewed again, and who will clean up the distribution path when it is no longer needed.
Keep these fields in the distribution record:
- Document purpose and allowed audience
- Included conditions and sensitive-information scope
- Current owner and approver
- Distribution path and review date
- Replacement document or retirement condition
Access restrictions or passwords do not guarantee confidentiality or eliminate redistribution risk. Organizational security and legal procedures, along with document-level operating responsibility, remain separate.
Separate the public copy from the review appendix even with one source
Maintaining one source does not mean sending one document to every audience. A public company introduction can explain the product scope and usage context, while customer pricing or technical review details remain in a separate appendix.
When the source changes, track which public and controlled outputs are affected, but do not automatically copy internal detail into the public version. Public material must remain understandable to a broad audience and retain its sources. Sales material must retain the conditions and ownership required by the current conversation.
This structure is not about multiplying files. It gives publishable knowledge and relationship-specific information different review rules.
A FeatPaper link does not perform the classification
FeatPaper supports sharing documents by link and reviewing viewing activity. Editors with the required permissions can also view and copy an AI public link. Choosing a link, however, does not approve the document for publication or make a security decision.
Before using an AI public link, confirm the public purpose, excluded information, allowed audience, and owner. Apply a separate distribution path and operating rules to sales documents. A product link executes a classification already made; it does not guarantee search exposure, AI citation, confidentiality, or safety.
Record a publication class and review date in the document register
At minimum, a document register should include:
- Document name and owner
- Publication class: public-discoverable or controlled-distribution
- Allowed audience and excluded information
- Current distribution path
- Source and latest substantive update date
- Next public-status review date
When product details, pricing, or policies change, review public copies and sales materials separately. Do not publish a document merely because it is old, and do not assume that a currently public document will remain appropriate indefinitely.
A document for AI and search discovery is not simply sales material sent to more people. It must be suitable for an unknown audience, understandable without extra explanation, and maintained by an owner who is responsible for sources and freshness. Set those criteria before selecting the link so public discovery and controlled distribution do not cross each other’s boundaries.
